Hal Walker

My hero is my grandad, Hal Walker, my mom’s dad. He was born in Sudan, Texas, and grew up in Texas and New Mexico. He is really smart and caring. He has worked hard his whole life and didn't let anything get in his way of doing what he wanted when he was little. He started first grade late because he had family complications, so when he was in school he had to pretend that he knew how to read.

Hal is a hero because he’s intelligent, he’s hardworking, and he’s persevered through difficult times.

My grandad, Hal, is intelligent. He won’t admit it, but when he was in high school, he had the highest math score in the statewide test. His siblings all say he’s the smartest one of them all. He was the first one to attend college, and earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He says that as a young child he was jealous of his older brother and sisters because they brought home books that he wished he had. When he started first grade, he was behind since he started late. He couldn’t read, but faked it by repeating what he had heard other kids say. My grandad loved school. He encouraged my mom and my uncle to succeed in school, and was always available to help them with school work. My mom talks about how patient he was with her when she struggled with math. Education still remains important to my grandad today, and he enjoys learning new things.

Other than being intelligent, I admire my grandad for his hardworking attitude. The story of his childhood shows that his family went through many challenges and learned to get through them by working hard and being smart. He worked hard as a child when the family would travel up to Colorado from Texas or New Mexico to work on farms, plowing the land, picking fruit, or whatever was needed. He learned how to build houses, repair electrical things, and work on cars. After he graduated from high school, he wanted a job that paid well and was safe. This was during the Cold War and it was assumed the United States would go to war with Russia. He did not want to go to war, but he wanted to participate in the effort without fighting, and decided to go into engineering. In his work experience, he was taught that the most important qualification is adaptability.

The final reason my granddad is my hero is that he perseveres when things get tough. I think he learned this from his dad. He talks about his father, who grew up in the early part of the 20th century. His dad was born in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and much of that part of the United States was still unsettled. When his dad was a young boy, he and his brother were working with their father. They were removing brush piles from a roadside late one night. They had to then burn the brush pile and as they were doing this, a wolf approached them. It is believed that the wolf had rabies. They took a shovel full of the burning brush and faced the wolf with it, as they backed away.  My granddad has taken this lesson to use the ability to keep going when things get tough: working hard as a young child, deciding to earn a degree as an electrical engineer, and working for the space program in Cocoa Beach, Florida as a way to support the United States during the Cold War.

I have seen my granddad work on a car for hours, figuring out what is wrong, and instead of giving up and walking away, he sticks with it. He’s willing to tackle almost any task and handle it with an attitude of “I can figure this out.”

Overall, my grandad is my hero because he is very intelligent and a very hard worker. I hope to be like him one day.